Author: Matt

1. Introduction
… feeling imprisoned ...
2.The struggles of feeling ’imprisoned’ ...
(a) in Zechariah’s time ...
(b) in the first century ...
(c) in our time ...
3.The hope ...
(a) in Zechariah’s time ...
(b) in the first century ...
(c) in our time ...
4. The Stockdale Paradox …
“embracing the brutal facts of my reality alongside faith that I will prevail in the end”
5. A prisoner of hope …
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”
1 Peter 1:1-3

Prisoners of Hope
Zechariah 9:9-12
Sunday 29th March 2020

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April 2020

… Palm Sunday ...

“9Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. 11As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. 12Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you”
Zechariah 9:9-12
1. Share and discuss what you hope your world will be like after the COVID-19 situation comes to an end.
2. Read Zechariah 9:9-12. What strikes you as hopeful in that passage? What leaves the sense of still being imprisoned?
3. Matt describe the phrase ‘prisoner of hope’ as “words that when they come together make no sense.” Can someone be a prisoner and have hope? What is written in the Zechariah passage that helps you understand this?
4. Watch Jim Collins discussing the Stockdale Paradox at https://youtu.be/GvWWO7F9kQY. How relevant do you see the Stockdale Paradox to our experience in the COVID-19 world today?
5. Describe the difference between Christian hope that is founded on the gospel and the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the hope of the world that “we will get through this together!”

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